


That's What Brothers Do

by NonDairyRay



Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: Dreams, Dysfunctional Family, Family, Fluff, Headcanon, Little Sisters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-28
Updated: 2011-12-28
Packaged: 2017-10-28 07:27:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/305337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NonDairyRay/pseuds/NonDairyRay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A look into Beat and Rhyme's life before the Game. Major, ginormous spoilers! Please finish the game before reading. :) T+ for Beat's potty mouth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That's What Brothers Do

**Author's Note:**

> Please note that this is mostly headcanon :)  
> I don't own Beat, Rhyme, or their universe, that's Squeenix's job.

The sound of the water running and brushes rubbing against teeth drowned out the sound of the argument downstairs, which Beat knew was about him. It wasn’t the first, and it wouldn’t be the last. He didn’t know how much more of living in this house he could take. His parents were always going on about dreams this and ambitions that, and he wanted no part of it. Why couldn’t he just live his life?

“Hey. Beat.”

“What, Rhyme?” he responded even though he knew what was coming.

“Have you decided anything else? About what you’re gonna do, you know?”

“Shit, Rhyme, I dunno. How many times’ve I told ya? Stop _askin’_ me.” This was an everyday occurrence. Ever since Rhyme had learned the concept of plans and dreams, she had been inquiring into whether Beat had any on a daily basis. Beat loved his sister (though he wouldn’t admit it), but she just didn’t know when to stop.

“But Beat, everyone has dreams!” Rhyme’s childish face was insistent.

“Dammit, why you so sure of that? You just like Mom and the ol’ man. You never jus’ lea’ me alone! Why I gotta have ambitions? Why can’ I just be?” He slammed his toothbrush onto the counter of the bathroom they shared and stalked out. He didn’t regret losing his temper; it had happened before and Rhyme was never affected. She came right back with the questions.

He flopped down on his bed and looked around. His room showed no evidence of personalization besides the clothes, chains, and skate accessories strewn across the floor. There were no pictures showing pop or rock stars, no photographs of his family or a girlfriend, no posters depicting sports stars. In a way, Beat supposed his bedroom _was_ a reflection of him, after all; he had no specific interests or purpose, and neither did this living space. He shook his head and grumbled. What was he thinking? He didn’t understand this metapsychical stuff anyway. He never would. When he got out of this place…

“Daisukenojo Bitou! You come down here this instant!” A shrill voice echoed through the upstairs. Beat knew there was no use in hiding, as his mother would eventually come looking for him, and that would just make it worse. He rolled off his bed, put his beanie on, and shuffled into the hallway. Rhyme peeked out of her bedroom nervously, and he waved her off. All he had to do was not lose his temper and it would be over before he knew it.

“Comin’, ma.” he said loudly.

His mother and father were standing at the foot of the stairs, arms crossed and glaring. Mr. Bitou was holding a heavily marked test paper. Beat groaned inwardly at his failure to clean up after himself.

“What is the meaning of this, Daisukenojo? A 35 percent? This is unacceptable.”

“It’s ridiculous. The son of Hiro and Kanako Bitou does not get 35 percents.”

“Ma, Pops, I—“

“Don’t make excuses, Daisukenojo. You are in serious trouble. This problem needs to be fixed immediately.”

“Honey, what would the club say if they found out? Many of their sons and daughters are Daisukenojo’s age… they might tell their parents!”

“Daisukenojo, you’re making your mother cry. Maybe if you did better in school, this wouldn’t happen…”

Beat couldn’t take it anymore.

“You know what?” He asked quietly, amidst his father’s reassurances to his mother. Neither of them heard.

“I said, YOU KNOW WHAT?” His parents froze. “I don’t fuckin’ care about this shit anymore! What’s it matter if your club finds out how bad I suck at school? Thass my problem, not theirs, and it’s def’nitely not yours! And my name ain’t _The Son of Hiro and Kanako Bitou_ , and it ain’t Daisukenojo either! I’ss BEAT! Get it through yer fuckin’ heads! I’m done here! This house ain’t doin’ me no good! Ain’t neither o’ you ever cared about me, all you ever cared about was the goddamn grades and how I looked! An’ I’m sure I can find a better place to live than here!” Oblivious to the dents in the wall his fists had made, he grabbed his school pack and stormed out the door. He didn’t know where he was headed; all he knew was that he needed to get away.

“Beat!” He looked back and saw Rhyme, still in her pajamas, running down their front steps to catch up to him. “Beat, where are you going?” She took his hand.

“Away from here. This place ain’t right.”

“But Beat, you have to stay! What will I do without you?” Her eyes filled with tears.

“What you talkin’ about? You a straight-A student. You don’t need a failure of a bro like me. You’ll be better off.” He patted her head and walked down the path to the road, not looking back even when his mother and father shouted for him to _come back here, young man_.

But now he needed somewhere to go. He couldn’t spend the whole day hanging out in a drugstore or café, and he wasn’t about to stand on a street corner all day. He could theoretically go back to his house once his parents had left for work, but he didn’t want to be anywhere that reminded him of them.

After some thought, he decided to walk over to Miyashita Park and see if CAT had drawn anything new. It had been a while since his (or her—nobody knew) latest artwork and Beat was eagerly awaiting the next. It wasn’t too far away, since only lived a few blocks down, just outside of Shibuya.

He set off at a brisk pace, walking on the shoulder of the road for the lack of sidewalks.

He liked walking. It left him alone with his thoughts, and since there were major traffic jams this time of day, there was little chance he would be hurt by an oncoming car. Even stopping at crosswalks didn’t distract him. His feet seemed to move on their own, and he unconsciously felt his way around the city as only a native could do.

Right after crossing the road that went under the park, he heard a girl’s voice shout his name. He turned to see Rhyme catching her breath on the other side of the street.

“Beat!”

“Rhyme! What you doin’ here? You shoulda been at school a half hour ago!” he called out.

“I came to make sure you were okay!” Her face blossomed into a smile that caught the eye of several schoolboys passing her. Beat glared at them and they quickly walked away. Rhyme didn’t notice.

“You gotta go home, Rhyme! You got your whole future ahead o’ you, an’ I don’t. I don’ wanna spoil anything or drag you down!”

“You can’t think that about yourself!” The cross signal blinked on and she started walking as she talked. “I don’t want you to…” The rest of what she said was lost on Beat, because he had noticed that a car had run a red light and was heading straight for Rhyme.

“RHYME!” he shouted, leaping the metal fence and sprinting across the road. No thoughts went through his mind as adrenaline was pushed into his bloodstream. At that moment, the only thing that mattered to him was saving his sister. He rapidly closed the distance between them and leaped at her, ready to tackle her out of the path of the car.

Unfortunately, just as he had wrapped his arms around her, he felt an excruciating pain, and everything went black.

*~*~*

Beat woke to the sun shining in his eyes. He was confused. _Thass weird… wasn’ I in the park underpass when… oh shit. Rhyme._

He sat up and looked around. Rhyme was nowhere to be seen, but noting the metal dog a few meters away, he realized he was in front of the Hachiko statue.

_What even happened? Did I… ge’ hit? Why’m I at the dog statue?_

“Excuse me, onii-san, are you all right?” Rhyme! He stood and examined her. She seemed to be unharmed, but there was a glazed look in her eyes that he had never seen before. He leaned in a little, taking hold of her shoulders, just to make sure she was all right.

“Ah, onii-san, what are you doing? Don’t you think that’s a little close for our first meeting?”

At first her words didn’t register. Then as Beat slowly realized the gravity of what Rhyme had just said, he backed away. “Rhyme… you… y’don’t… know me?”

She looked surprised. “You know my name? I’m sorry, but I don’t know you. I’m Rhyme Bitou, as you obviously know. She laughed and held out her hand.

“You messin’ around? O’course you know me! I… I’m your big brother!” He was reeling. How? Did she get amnesia when the car hit them? Surely it hadn’t been going that fast!

“But I don’t have any brothers! At least I don’t remember any… I don’t remember very much, you see. I don’t even know how I got here.” She looked doubtful. “But if you say you know me, I guess I have to trust you! Can you show me where I live? I should probably get home.”

Beat didn’t trust himself to speak, so he nodded stiffly and beckoned for her to follow. As he was leading her towards the scramble, he saw what he thought was a cat. Upon closer inspection, however, he realized that it was a strange froglike creature he had never seen before. It was moving fast towards them, and as it got closer, Beat saw that it looked very angry and that it had very sharp teeth.

“Shit, Rhyme, we gotta move!” he shouted, grabbing her by the hand. Suddenly, he was frozen. All around him was white, and all he could see was Rhyme. They were still holding hands, and a strange substance seemed to be moving between them.

As quickly as it had started, it was over. The beam of light had deposited them on the ground, and a few small objects tumbled out of Beat’s pants pocket. He heard growling and knew the animal wasn’t far from him, but he picked up the things anyway. Pins! These are pins! Why the hell were they in my pocket? Holding one with a fire symbol on it, he felt a strange power inside him. He knew this power… he had felt it before, directly prior to a fight. He knew that these little pins would somehow allow him to defeat this animal, and save both their lives. Then, he could get to work on figuring out what was wrong with Rhyme.

Attaching the pins to his shirt, he squared himself to face the frog, hand in hand with Rhyme. “Bring it, bitch. This is for my sister!”

He would do whatever it took to fix her. There was no other option for him, because he was her brother, and that’s just what brothers did.


End file.
